Bonjour mes amis, Round 8 of the season sees a welcome return to Rouen-Les-Essarts, a great circuit built on public roads with both fast sections, a slippery chicane and blind bends.

Rouen hosted five Formula One French Grand Prix races and is featured in the original game because of the blandness of the Bugatti track. Good choice.

With a wide opening section there shouldn't be too many T1 problems but please be careful when the field is compressed at the hairpin. French polos are every bit as tough as the Mexican variety.

Reserve drivers should not join until there are only 30 mins of qualifying left. However, all drivers should not go on track until there is 30 minutes of qualifying left. This helps all drivers join the server successfully. Please restrict chat to pit messages including at the end of the race until ALL drivers still racing have crossed the line.

Don't forget to use the updated 65 mod for this race.

Please be in the IGOR UKGPL chatroom by 8:55 p.m.(You will need to set up a channel called #ukgpl if you haven't already done so)IGOR and Race passwords: see above

Each driver has been given a seeding number and must pick a chassis with either an equal number or higher number but not a lower number. For example, if a driver is given a seeding of 2, he must pick one of the cars in group 2 (BRM or Honda) but if he would prefer to drive either the BT11, Cooper or BT7 he may do so. This means that a driver given a seeding of 1 can pick any chassis he prefers.

**NOTE**Whichever chassis a driver begins his first race with is the chassis he must use for the remainder of the season unless a change has been agreed with the moderator.

Grat s AL Tim and Steve , well done Phil good result mate .Tough on you guys Nik and James , I know how you feel had to take a few early baths myself of late

After spending most of the day up a ladder knocking 3 bells out the brickwork I was exhausted, so just poodled along at the rear . kept getting cramps in me hands which slowed me down even more , decided to carry on in spite of it and suprised to finish 6th though a very lonely race and was sure I would get lapped at one time .

Conclusion

Nice day out in the country , should have taken a picnic, girl friend and beer

well , anyone around could explain me the secret of how to extract fun out ukgpl amateurs races if you got kicked out permant by other drivers ?

this time it was Clutch at the hairpine... after that chrash my engine was damaged and gave up a lap later ...

another `no go ` : Fulvio at the start.. if the leading car in front of you clearly closed the entry to the next turn ( in this case T1 ) , then there isnt anyway to overtake !!

keep in mind ; as long you havnt overtake ,you have to stay free from the leading car , that simple.

for now its race number 3 in which I have been slaughtered .. wonder how much it will be to the end of this season , as well I wonder whatfor I should waste my time for that...

No word for your Shumy move Niky...

My bad move at Mosport wasn't on purpose, yours it seems it was. To avoid your car and the hailbails I should have to slam on the brake. Anyway I don't like fill protest so don't worry, I''ll take the bad.Ciao

Thanks to Tim for the tow in quali, which squeezed me up to 3rd on the grid. This season I have been unable to pick up a tow in quali at most tracks, but here it worked well. The Cooper always feels like it is undergeared to me...revving its bits off and going nowhere!!!!

The start was good and I hooked up to the back of Goran's BT11 as he chased Al's BRM up front. I was happy to sit there for a few laps and see how things developed. The crucial thing for me was to stay in the "Tow Zone" as we got on to the back straight, so I kept it as neat as I could from the hairpin up through the twisty bits and got pulled up the hill.

I think Nicky was in 4th, but he dropped back a bit after 2 laps and I had a nice clear gap behind me, so that I could concentrate on tailing the 2 cars in front. It was clear that I was quicker through the fast bends but suffering on sheer grunt out of the slow corners, but that was OK because the 3 of us were drawing away from the cars behind and I was content to sit back and go along for the ride.Then Goran got a bit wild out of T1, which I was taking flat in 6th gear..eyes shut...no lift....hold on tight. He slowed and I thought for a moment we were going to have a problem but his car took him onto the grass and he disappeared into the valley.I was now in 2nd spot but Al was just too far in front for my comfort and to be sure of the tow, so a bit of demon braking into Nouveau Monde and full commitment up the hill got me on to his gearbox before the straight Still pulling away from the chasing cars , so I let Al take the strain, sorry Al but I'm old and I need all the rest I can get . Still a long way to go so no rush to pass him, but he was being very quick and consistant in that BRM and with his extra grunt on the straight I was having to work on the bends and braking to keep him honest.With about 10 laps to go Al ran wide at T3 and I squeezed through, although it was earlier than I had planned to attempt to take the lead I had to go for it.The next few laps i tried to shake Al off my tail but that damned BRM was just sooo quick on the straight that he pulled back all my gains every time I know how frustrated Hristo gets ad i'm blowed if I know how he manages to actually pull away sometimes??!!Eventually Al got alongside and re-took the lead with 5 laps to go and I tucked in behind waiting for a chance to pounce.I knew I was quicker through T1 and down to Nouveau Monde and that was where i was going to sweep into a glorious lead on the final lap...............except for one small detail I clipped the kerb on the inside of T1 ( for the first time in the whole race!!!) and that was the beginning of the end as I bounced across the track, mounted the wall of death, slewed back across and onto the grass, went hurtling off down the valley and wiped 2 wheels off on a French tree!!!Grats to Al for a great and fair race , really enjoyed that dice Bigger grats for his first Am's win, very well deserved from where I was watching . Grats to Tim for a good recovery and Steve for the last lap sneak on to the podium.

A big congrats to Al for his first Am,s win and to Tim for second and, another best of the season to Steve for 3rd, WD.

My own race begun well, second on the grid and a good start, holding on to that second position. I had no problem following Al, only I was a bit worried about Clive behind and hoped that Al would go a little faster so that we could get rid of that annoying mosquito behind me, or else I would have to pass him. That was my thoughts comming out of that T1, wild??? OK I don`t really remember because when approaching T2 I noticed that my brake pedal was kind of stuck, and before I had time to figure out what was happening I fund myself by the trees with no wheels on my car.

So, that was the end of my 3rd race that day. The two earlier ones had ended with screen freezes so I guess it was good to have something else happen for a change.Did I say that it was because of the date, the 13th, or is it that just superstition.

First of all thanks to Clive for a really fair (albeit damn hard) fight. It takes quite a lot to scrap for some 20 laps in GPL without incident so I was genuinely sorry to see him go off on the last lap as he deserved better. FL in the Cooper takes some doing.

Well I think Iâ€™d better scratch Rouen off my â€śtracks I donâ€™t likeâ€ť list nowâ€¦ wasnâ€™t expecting to go that well here but the BRM at last played its trump card & gave me enough extra grunt to grab my first Amâ€™s pole. Had my mirrors full of a feisty-looking Goran for the first few laps & I was rather hoping that him & Clive just behind would forget about all about me & start fighting each other. Sadly that didnâ€™t happen & Goranâ€™s early retirement on lap 3 served to unleash the full force of Clive onto me.

The next 20 laps proved to be an exciting strategic battle - it was pretty clear that Clive was faster than me through several corners & especially T1 & T2, but as long as I could avoid errors the BRM power could buy me just enough time down the straights to keep the Cooper at bay. This was great in theory but Cliveâ€™s relentless pressure eventually paid dividends & he burst through on lap 14. It was now my turn to follow & I spent the next few laps trying to figure out a safe place to try & retake the lead. On lap 18 I finally managed to get back past down the long straight, but having witnessed Cliveâ€™s last-corner podium steal in the 67 Rouen race I knew this wasnâ€™t over by any means. I pushed as hard as I dared in the last few laps, almost outbraking myself at the end of the back straight, but Clive remained firmly glued to my tail. I was expecting a titanic fight in the last lap but as I approached the hairpin I suddenly realised that the dreadful vuvuzela noise had finally stopped ringing in my ears & the Cooper had vanished.

My target for my first season in Ams was a podium so Iâ€™m absolutely chuffed with this unexpected win â€“ especially after Iâ€™d tossed away 2nd at Schottenring & 3rd at Sachsenring. Thanks to everyone for the congrats & WD to FMG for another impressive showing in the BT7 & great to also see my teammate Steve on the podium.

My bad move at Mosport wasn't on purpose, yours it seems it was. To avoid your car and the hailbails I should have to slam on the brake. Anyway I don't like fill protest so don't worry, I''ll take the bad.Ciao

Fulvio its not my intention to bring up an bad atmosphere here .But with all respect I absolutely cant understand your point of view in that .it was all over selfconflicted by you . 100% mission impossible what you tried . I mean you havnt overtake and same time you were running out of track . so off course you had had to slow down . You cant expect a car in front of you will move only to gave you the possibility to reenter to track out of pit exit area .

still: as long a driver havnt overtake , he had to stay free from the leading car.and the leading car can go where ever it want to , as long its not weaving .

I started from left grid position and from the first moment the flag was down , I started to changed overto the right side of track .That was only one move .btw. what means `shumy ` ? my small dictionary dont tell

Still not happy with my pace, but it turned out ok for the race. Thanks to most of the lead guys going out I was running 5th around 5 seconds or so in front of Phil, then lost concentration for a moment which resulted in a spin. Phil passed and darted away at a rapid pace!

It took most of the remaining laps to crawl back to the draft and managed to close in for the last 5 laps. Another faller saw us 4th and 5th and a combination of good defensive driving by Phil, the pull of his fez engine and several minor errors resulted in me following him to the last lap. I had only 1 chance left to try an make a move stick at Scierie, but Phil was good there in previous laps with his breaking and I wasn't wanting to throw the race for either of us with anything to daft. I managed to stick with him at close range all the way around the lap and got good drive out of Sanson to follow up the hill. Phil held a nice defensive line on the run in to Scierie and I reverted to the normal race line, hit the brakes as late as I dared, trying not to risk compromising the exit too much, we were pretty much side by side and I couldn't see Phils car but just as I went to turn in I caught a gimps of the rear of the Fez coming around, I had to make a quick move to avoid potential contact but still expected to get a knock. It must have been just enough as I got through the corner and left poor Phil recovering the spun Ferrari. To my surprise I noticed Evils name up as a passed car also! I thought Prib had got it all wrong, but I was amazed to find I'd claimed a podium spot! Made me feel a bit guilty but I guess you have to be there at the finish.

Great fun Phil, some great, fair driving there.

WD to Al on a sterling performance and Tim for a good recovery drive. Commiserations to Clive.

Yes we've had some great battles this season. I don't mind loosing in a clean fight (winning isn't everything, it's the dicing I enjoy), we were side-by-side in a few corners but we gave each other enough room. Although I couldn't see you in my mirrors I knew where you were and could trust you not to do anything daft. I also knew you would beat me if you got past, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to retake the position . Pity Bernie couldn't make it a 3 way battle, he was very close but once he lost touch with us it was hard for him to get on terms. Going by the lap times, there wasn't a lot between us.

I was half hoping to join battle but my qually didnt go well , I had faffed around with the gearbox ratios, clutches and stuff for race setup in the blind hope that I would smash the WR and get to taste champers .

So much for the theory , In reality I made the car slower ( or was it me ) the prob was getting up that hill from the hairpin where I was losing out badly .

Lap1 and I let Phil by in the hope of a tow from the Ferrari (actually he just drove past me ) , then thought I will "just tag along in his draught" for 15 laps or so then breeze past when I was on light fuel, but I only got a view of Marenello exhaust for a short while before you were gone

Think I need a new mechanic , the one I employ at the mo just isn't up to Soggie Bottom Racers Standard